As Bane of My Existence, part 1 of 'The Shift' Trilogy, becomes available on Thursday, I think I will introduce you to our two main characters. Master Bane and Antonia are the romance behind the three books, but there is also a third character, Master Kayle, who is the impetus for the two of them meeting in this book and he becomes even more important in the second and third books. (Cursive words are direct quotes from the book.)

Today, I introduce you to Antonia.

Antonia is twenty-one, a senior in college and an intelligent young woman. Kayle and her have been friends since she first started Reed three years previous and she trusts him almost implicitly.

She trusted Kayle; he always, well usually, knew what was right for her… except for when he was wrong, of course.

Until three months previous, she never had to work. With a full-ride scholarship to Reed College, her grandmother made up the difference in her expenses. With her dear Nana's death, she finds herself in need of bringing in a thousand more per month. She turns to the dreaded Help Wanted ads.

As of tomorrow, she was heading back to school for her senior year and she desperately needed a job. Groaning at the ubiquitous drivel that sat in front of her, she trudged on through them. “Retail, sales, cleaning…,” she muttered as her eyes drifted through.

Enter Kayle, who convinces her to try out for a job as a waitress at the new fetish club Liaisons. The club is strange enough with its rules, regulations and the even stranger people who go there. She hopes she is ready for anything she finds within its walls, but nothing could have prepared her for meeting Master Bane, the owner. From the first moment she sees him, she can not get him off her mind.

It seems she makes just as big of an impression on him as he does on her.

“Of course I couldn’t be sure you would come along, but I usually get what I want. And I want you.” A pleasant shudder ran through her and she tried to dampen it down. Of course he wanted her, he had made that plain.

Attracted and intrigued by the enigmatic man, Antonia accepts his offer to become his sub. She isn't prepared for the happiness it gives her. She isn't prepared for the freedom that comes from being his sub. But most of all. She isn't prepared for the secret he is keeping from her.

Sometimes finding out the truth about someone you love can test everything you have ever believed about yourself. Antonia is about to be tested.
(UPDATE)Currently available from the following eRetailers:

When Antonia is convinced by her friend Kayle to apply at Liaisons, a new fetish club in town, she never expects to meet Master Bane or to become his sub.

As she falls more and more for the enigmatic man two decades her senior, there is something about him that she cannot quite figure out. She can tell he is keeping something from her and even as that gulf stretches between them, she falls further and further in love with him.